The PMP Certification Exam: Is a Family Member Going Through the Hurdles?

Anybody preparing for an exam is the most disagreeable person around. If a family member is preparing for a PMP Certification Exam, better steer clear or you’ll have hell to pay, better yet give the support needed.

How to Support Someone Facing the Biggest Hurdle

There is nothing easy about a PMP Certification Exam. Those who survived this can tell you that during the preparations for the exam they did nothing but breathe, eat, and sleep the references for their PMP course. As one survivor revealed, do not rely on the Project Management Book of Knowledge or PMBOK(r) as your training manual, rather understand the PMI’s adaptation of project management and their terminology — hit the training manuals.

So you’ll have to read the heavy stuff until you understand everything in it; mind you, this won’t be easy. So if you your spouse is preparing for the PMP Certification Exam, here is what you can do to make life easier for everybody:

* Designate a study room and allow no one to enter the room
* Make sure the study room is well ventilated and well lighted
* Stack on nutritious snacks and drinks in the study room
* TV volume should be muted
* Don’t allow the kids to wreck havoc near the study room
* Prepare well-balanced meals
* Be strict about mealtimes, physical workouts, and sleep time

The PMP Certification Exam

After completing the required 35 hours of contact time, application for the PMP Certification Exam follows. Its either your partner gets an application right after when things are still fresh in his mind or take a break before taking the test from accredited Priometric Test Centers. Since these computer based exams are held daily, hubby will decides on a date. Make sure though, that hubby completes his PMI application when he registers for the online exam.

Or if he uses the paper form, go over it, he might have missed out something. He may pay for the test with his credit card because this is more convenient than mailing a check. When done, wait for the notification of acceptance to sit for the PMP Certification Exam. Expect him to ask you to check the nearest test location for the test schedule, oblige pleasantly because there is a lot on his mind already.

Stress levels will shoot up when the die is cast. Perhaps he will take a pre-test to evaluate how he fares as part of his preparation. The actual PMP Certification Exam will involve 200 multiple choice questions and this will take four hours to complete. The tests will start with a 15 minute computer tutorial.

Helping Him Cope with Pre Exams Jitters

Your are no saint but at this time, be understanding of emotional outbursts, moodiness, irritability, sleeping and eating disorders even if you want to scream at him. But be firm about mealtimes and always encourage him to take brisk walks outdoors to clear his mind and to unknot tight muscles.

It is before the tests that he will need your all-out support. Stay cool, and run errands for him short of waiting on him hand and foot. When he passes the PMP certification exam, you are part of his triumph, so why complain?